


Unilateral

by cuneifire (orphan_account)



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: 19th Century, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-21 04:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19995601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/cuneifire
Summary: Three things Paraguay knows.





	Unilateral

1870

.

Paraguay knows a myriad of things. How to tie a sailor's knot, despite being landlocked. How to smile politely whilst sharpening his knives. How to fire a gun.

He knows how to read people, too, and it seems that comes out the most important, these days.

.

He knows Uruguay, somehow. Knows his shy but determined voice and the unseen steel in his eyes, know the look he has when he's ready to kill and the look when the knife is going into the back of someone he loves.

He knows they're allies, or at least he thought he did, because _he_ stepped into to save him, from Brazil, but Uruguay left him to the dust.

.

He knows Brazil, too, although he wished he didn't. But he makes it a mission to know thine enemy, and know them well. He knows the shattered-glass crystal that Brazil is looking through, the mirage-like pieces of the future he's looking to. He knows the great Brazilian empire has a chokehold on him, and Paraguay knows another thing too.

He knows the reason Brazil always smiles. It's because otherwise, you see the death in his eyes. And that's a hard thing to hide.

.

He knows Argentina, though not as well. But he knows jealousy when he sees it, he knows the burning ice look in his eyes when he's at the table with Brazil. Paraguay knows jealousy. Jealousy is easy.

But there's something he doesn't know, and that in it of itself makes him despise Argentina. Because when Argentina looks at Brazil, there's always something unreadable in his eyes, something even Paraguay can't get a proper grip on, like a star swept glimmering piece of the sea at night.

.

He knows himself too, his gun bracketing near insanity and the swish of bright colors in the back of his vision, but that's not really all too important. He gets the feeling that he won't be around much longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes
> 
> -This takes place during the War of the Triple Alliance, or the Paraguayan War, a South American war that took place from 1864-1870. It featured Paraguay against the aforementioned Triple Alliance of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
> 
> -Before the war, Paraguay had repeatedly stated it alliance to Uruguay, and when the Uruguayan government was supplanted by the Brazilian one, the Paraguayans declared war (for that reason alongside a myriad of others)
> 
> -The war almost brought the end of Paraguay as a nation. The country lost ~70 percent of its total population, and ~90% of its total male population. In fact, probably the only reason the country is still here today was due to Brazil and Argentina's mutual paranoia of each other, and therefore agreement to use Paraguay as a buffer state.


End file.
